What does good tone mean to you?

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Blue Bear Sound

Blue Bear Sound

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As a spin-off from the tube/POD thread I recently posted....

A few people made some varying comments on what they consider good tone or not...

I think there can be a distinction between the tone used on a recording and live sound. I find Lee Ritenour has inherent TONE in his playing and live it comes across pretty much the same.

Contrast that to Jimmy Page, who got some decent recorded sounds (on certain tracks), but live, sounded pretty much like a full out wash. Contrast again to SRV, David Gilmour or Ritchie Blackmore, who again were consistent both live and recorded.

SO............ let's hear it - what does "good tone" mean to you? (no bad answers - no flames, just your definition of TONE.....)

Bruce
 
Well, I have to define it with references:

Faith no More: "Angeldust".
Clawfinger: "Deaf Dumb Blind". Especially songs like "Truth" and "Rosegrove"
The Young Gods: L'Amourir / Pas Mal.
Siekiera: Nowa Aleksandria
Twice a man: From a Northern Shore.

Some of this you might find on Napster I guess. Some of it IS rather obscure, Polish 80's goth is not that big here in Sweden anyway. Ah well.

This, interestingly is ONLY rhythm guitars. I realized I have no favourite lead guitar sounds. :) No, wait, I like the surf guitar sound, so I'll add "The Spotnicks".

Crap. My record player just broke. Again. I'm giving up repairing it, I'll have to buy a new one. :-(
 
There are a few people who's tone I have always envied.

David Gilmour: Strat, Big Hiwatt amps, Leslie, a plethora of effects (he's always been tastefull with effects). He doesn't have just one tone. At times he is very crisp like a lazer, other times he is a little warmer. He's been quoted as saying that anybody can achieve his tone by using a couple common effects pedals, I don't think so! I saw a web page that detailed his whole rig, you need the top minds at nasa to create a rig like his.

Neal Schon: Especially his late seventies/early eighties tone. He is a true players player. Great rythme and lead tone. IMHO the best lead tone in the business.

Eric Johnson-Cliffs of Dover
Billy Gibbons
Peter Framton- Frampton Comes Alive
BB King-Sounds like someone dropped a green bullet harp mic into the horn of a an alto sax-Powerful!

All these players true tone comes from their own fingers
Thanks
P
 
Depends on the perspective of the listener. If someone says the guy from Poison had good tone, then to that guy it WAS good tone. This is a PREFERENCE issue.
 
Tone; that's a hard one.

You can buy all the new technology, have 100 different tube amps, 100 different guitars etc. but at the end of the day your true tone comes down to how you work them. Tone and effects aren't the same thing. If you strip a guitar player of effects, give him a decent guitar and amp (if playing electric) that's where the tone should be addressed. It's down to the dynamics of stricking the strings, continual adjustments of the guitar paremeters...................

Good tone/bad tone-there is no such thing. It's all down to personal preference, opionion and the set of ears you have.

Do you have a POD or a GT3/5=Tone based or effects/cover band based.

Personally tone is Vital to my playing. In the studio I strive for my optimum tone, playing live; there's a natural degredation of sound quality.

Just listen to B.B.King. You know it's him playing after one note because he has his signature tone/style.
 
Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman, Trey Azagtoth, Hoffman brothers :D
 
Here's a way to notice that there IS such a thing as good tone:
A/B a Marshall valvestate with a HiWatt. ;)

When I hear my friend playing his gibson thru his 1970-something HiWatt or his 1968 Orange, I know what tone is.
It however also instantly reminds me of what SPL, headache and earprotection is... :D
 
I’m gonna get reemed for this but I HATE Randy Rhoads tone.. I purposely try to avoid that midrangey crap as much as possible.. and this leads me to carry the same disdain for Tom Sholtz’s tone… it sounds like the guitar is played through a coffee can.. Tony Iommi’s tone also lives somewhere in that frequency, but somehow it seems to work for him..

Neither do I like the guy from Creed’s dry, airy, weenie-tone.. If this is the PRS sound, then I know what guitar I won’t buy..

And I don’t like the Dimebag tone. Although somewhat more tolerable than that mentioned above, it’s a bit too dry for my taste..

That being said, Hendrix had great tone, as did SRV, Page, Gilmour, and Squier.. Some of the best tone I ever heard came from Angus and Malcom Young, and some great tone has come from Adrian Smith as well.. now ..Thayil.. man.. there’s some tone!

People thought Kirk Hammet was a guitar god.. but in the end he either didn’t know or completely forgot what good guitar sounded like.. In other words: Kirk, PLEASE lay off the wah.. you do not know what the hell you are doing.. and put that slide back where you found it!! Here, have a beer..

Cy
 
Ah yes, Hendrix. Let's all pause a moment and let the opening of All Along the Watchtower play in our minds.


. . .


Ah, refreshing!
 
If I want to copy a guitar-sound then it's Richie Kotzen on Poison's Native Tongue (there's this intro of "ride child ride" - my all-time favorite tone, really)... so according to the cd-booklet I would have to buy a marshall, but everytime I try one of those thingies in the guitar-shop I have to say: no way! it doesn't even sound similar to that recording (ok, that's what a home-recorder exspected anyway ;) ).
AC/DC of course have a killer-tone too (and damn; there's those marshalls again!).
I like those power-without-too-much-distortion-tones anyway... but then I start to miss those punchy palm-mutes.

Guitarsounds I really don't like are most of the Gn'R stuff... too trebly for my taste (rhythm)... sure, the intro-lead of "sweet child of mine" is classic and the clean "paradise city"-intro always creates this open-air-festival-feeling, but the distorted sounds of Gn'R just suck.

Furthermore I don't like heavy-heavy-metal heavy-bass-no-mids-supertreble sounds. For me it lacks of soul, definitely. ok, it's metal.

after all it's really a matter of taste. It's like judging if neck single coils sound "better" than bridge humbuckers. (I tend to say so ;) ... but then again I play all those rock-songs with my bridge hb).

btw: I almost forgot - eddie van halen's lead sound makes me sick.
 
six said:

Furthermore I don't like heavy-heavy-metal heavy-bass-no-mids-supertreble sounds. For me it lacks of soul, definitely. ok, it's metal.
Click to expand...
Now try THAT on a Marshall Valvestate, and you have the ultimate definition of NO TONE. And if you get the chance, try to mix this in with a band. You can't. Now why would that be...
 
Regebros right...you can only really describe it with references.

Gilmour's first bend up to G in Shine On...I have always played strats, and I have never had an amp that could make that note sound like that. Any ideas ? Carlos Santana has a great tone too in his older stuff. Also that Gibson SG 'woman' tone ala Creams 'The White Room.

pAp
 
Papillon, yes, Santana's _OLD_ tone was nice. Now he just sounds like "oh well... we got that hi-gain amp, super-sustain prs and that awesome compressor. let's just crank everything up!"
 
Look here to find out what the difference between your rig and David Gilmour's rig is... In short: ALOT of $$...

The HiWatt has got alot to do with his tone. Also, the active pickups and the custom designed leslies. :eek:
 
Yep - love Shine on. As for Cream, I have read that they played REALLY LOUD even in the studio - so that is probably part of it. Most of it is the way EC played.
 
Reading some the responses I'm wondering if we're talking tone or playing style. Anybody acknowledge a difference?

When I think solely in terms of tone, I think of the difference for example, between Tom Sholtz and Billy Gibbons. Treble twang vs Soft blend. Almost sounds like a S.S. vs Tube scenario. Maybe it is, I don't know.

Don't know what rig Frampton was playing that Les Paul thru on "Comes Alive", but I've always admired that clear, ringing fluid sound coming off those humbuckers.

I love lead riffs that are forcefull without being saturated by distortion like Lynch's little ditty in "Breakin' the Chains".

Some folks are sick to death of Eddie. O.K. ...is it the tone or the repetitive style of his playing?

I think different tones are dictated by the atmosphere of a song's dynamics. Some players can't escape the comfort level of a tone set-up that they've been sucessful with.

Can you imagine Gilmour, Nugent or Gibbons strapping on a KV1 and plugging into a Line 6?
 
I've never been a fan of players who use delay or echo in concert. Digital delays just seem to suck the life out of the tone and reduce the PRESENCE of the instrument. I don't mind delay on albums if it's used in moderation, but it's far from my favorite effect.

Ultimately tone should compliment the style of music you play and you are somewhat born with a natural tone, You can cultivate it to some extent.....like all those guys in the 80's who were trying to sound just like Eddie Van Halen or like todays' young players who are trying to get that Korn sound. My favorite guitar tones are probably acoustic ones. I love the complex harmonics that acoustic instruments give you. If they just weren't so damn hard for me to play well !
 
When I hear "He's got good tone" that makes me think reguardless of the rig, the tone starts from w/ in & comes out through the touch.


You contain the majority of tone, not the rig.


Tone is also the sound of your technique.


Although, the tones of a Marshall stack & a Les Paul are quite different from that of a Telecaster & a Twin.
 
When I hear "He's got good tone" that makes me think reguardless of the rig, the tone starts from w/ in & comes out through the touch.


You contain the majority of tone, not the rig.


Tone is also the sound of your technique.


Although, the tones of a Marshall stack & a Les Paul are quite different from that of a Telecaster & a Twin.
 
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